Starlit Rose
by DarkWingedDragon
Summary: The war is still raging fiercely, and the final battle will, as everyone knows, threaten to destroy the balance between the worlds. Bonds forged over many years start to strain to keep from breaking. And through it all, perhaps hope can still shine.
1. A Deep Sleep

"Momo."

Momo Hinamori opened her eyes. It took only a moment for her to realize that she was in her mind's world. But it was all wrong. Where was the sun? Where was the moon, the rivers, the stars, the mountains, and the trees? Where was her beautiful world? Everything was so dark. She felt Tobiume's presence, as always, but couldn't see her. Of course, she usually couldn't see her-Tobiume was the very essence of the rivers, of the life in her mind.

"Momo. I don't have long. It took me a long while to awaken you from your protective slumber."

Momo could feel the ground beneath her feet, but there was no grass.

"What's happened?"

She felt a cool stroke on her cheek.

"This is happening because I must leave."

"Leave? Does that mean that we are going to die?" Momo wondered aloud.

"No. Merely that you will not see me for a while. But even though I will be gone, you must stay strong. We will find each other again. I promise." Tobiume said, her bell-like voice ever soothing to Momo's thoughts. But what was there to soothed of? Hadn't she always been here? Hadn't it always been like this?

"Momo-you must remember yourself. Before I leave your mind completely, I will send you back to your body."

Remember herself? But she knew who she was. She was Momo, whom had always lived in this cold dark place. She felt a tugging. She resisted, suddenly afraid of going back to wherever that place was. All she knew was that she did not want to go back. It promised to be painful.

"Face your pain, Momo."

She moaned as the tugging came harder.

"Vice Captain Hinamori! Go! Remember your rank, and remember how hard we worked together to earn it! Now go back to your squad!"

No. She didn't want to. She wanted to stay here.

"Go!"

"You're awake." Captain Unahana's familiar voice filtered to her before anything else did. She blinked her bleary eyes, and tried to move. Bad idea. She could barely hold in her gasp as the movement sent tremors of pain up and down her abdomen and spine.

"Pain medication! Now! She's going unconscious again!" Unahana barked orders at someone.

"Vice Captain Hinamori, stay awake! That is a direct order! If you go under again we may not be able to bring you back out!" Unahana snapped at her. But Unahana was so far away. Everything was so far away. The welcoming blackness, far more desolate than her mind, yet she felt the inclination to join it. To sleep forever, without pain. With a contented sigh, Momo closed her eyes once more.


	2. Awakening

"Momo. Please wake up."

Momo roused herself to a familiar presence. Everything hurt. But it didn't seem to match the pain in the voice.

"Momo, wake up. Please. Captain Unahana said that you were gone. Too-

Momo felt the familiar presence seem to flicker, along with the voice. Why was the voice so sad? Recognition faded into exsistance. Shiro-Chan……

"She said you were too far into the coma. If you don't wake up today, they'll pull the plug."

Momo felt something wet. Tears. Shiro-Chan never cried. She was in a coma? Why would that upset him? It sure didn't upset her. A warm hand gripped hers tightly, as if afraid to let go.

"Please, Momo. I'm begging you. Please-please wake up."

His tone had taken on so much grief it sounded as if he was whimpering. He shouldn't be that sad. Momo tried to move, but her aching body didn't move. Didn't seem to want to respond to her commands. The hand gripped tighter.

"Damn it bed-wetter! Get up! GET UP!"

He sounded desperate. Shiro-chan shouldn't act like that. He was a captain. She made her decision. She threw her will against her unruly, unresponding body. She fought against the invisible bonds, motionless. She faintly heard beeping. With a final shove, she gripped Shiro's hand, and opened her eyes, focusing on his tear streaked face, trying not to go back to sleep. Dimly, she noticed that they appeared to be in the center of a snow-blizzard. She forced her throat to work.

"You shouldn't cry. You're a captain." The words scratched their way out of her mouth, sounding hoarse and croaked. Shiro let go of her hand and leaned forward, kissing her forehead and embracing her far more gently than he seemed to want to. She blinked again, registering that she should be more surprised about this than she actually was.

"Shut up, Momo."


	3. A Stubborn Shiro

_Dad! Look what I taught Shina!" Momo cried excitedly, capturing her parent's attention. The young black horse beside Momo nudged her impatiently. Momo's father put down the manure fork and wiped the sweat off his broad forehead. His gruff, black eyes twinkled under his tan skin. Nine year old Momo looked at him eagerly._

"_Are you ready?" she asked impatiently._

"_Yes, yes. Show me this new trick you've taught your filly." His voice was filled with amusement at her eagerness._

"_Okay!"_

_With a gentle wiggle of the rope, Momo asked Shina to back up. Shina did so willingly, and then waited with adoring eyes as Momo asked. Momo kept her eyes trained on her horse, and lifted her arms into the sky. The response from Shina was immediate. The filly rose on her hindlegs and pawed the air, excitement wracking through her body. Momo dropped her arms, and Shina fell back down to the ground. The nine year old grinned at her filly and rubbed her with heart-felt strokes. _

"_That's my little horse-trainer!" Her father cried with approval, pride shining in his eyes._

Momo roused from sleep, clutching her aching head. Captain Unahana had injected so much pain reliever into her that she didn't even feel her wound. In fact, she barely felt anything at all. That couldn't be healthy.

"Vice-Captain, here's your zanpakto. We've been keeping it for when you woke up." A young girl from her division spoke, setting Tobiume on the table next to the hospital bed. What a lie. They had all been sure she was going to die. The only reason they had upheld Tobiume was because they had been expecting to show it at her funeral.

As the shinigami left, all Momo's hair stood on end. Something wasn't right. She reached for Tobiume, but froze when her hands met the sheath. Gone was the powerful mind connection she felt with her zanpakto the moment her hands touched it. She couldn't even feel Tobiume. A panick seized her mind. Momo grabbed the zanpakto and unsheathed it. Her heart dropped. No, more than that. It crashed. It freakin _died_. Her zanpakto looked the same, but the spirit that inhabited it was gone. It was apparent in the cold bite the zanpakto had when she held it. Instead of feeling protected and loved, she only felt loneliness.

Momo's mind started racing a million miles a minute. So the dream she had had while in the coma couldn't have been a dream-it must have been real. And if it was real, that meant that Tobiume really had gone on some kind of journey without her. But how was that possible? How could a zanpakto just leave its weilder, when it was part of the weilder's spiritual energy? All of these questions were making her head hurt. Ouch. She would continue to act as though she still had her powers, that was all. Until Tobiume came back.. With a shudder, she resheathed the zanpakto. It felt like she was holding a dead body. Hastily, she put it back on the shelf. New thoughts swarmed her mind.

Captain Aizen……

The name came to her mind, but for some reason she couldn't grasp a hold of what it really meant. A faint pain gripped her heart froom a distant land, She didn't want to go near that pain-it promised to blind her with grief. She shied away from it with every fiber in her being.

The door opened. A familiar flash of white hair entered the room.

"Hey." He said in greeting, obviously somewhat awkward.

"Hey." She replied, awkward as well. The dream like memory of him kissing her on the forehead filled her mind, and she fought back a blush.

Hitsugaya walked over and sat on her bed, staring at her. It made her feel a little uneasy.

"Hinamori, I've decided to train you. Right now you're too weak to survive the war."

Anger flashed through her.

"Weak? I am NOT weak. That wasn't a very nice thing to say, Shiro-Chan."

"I'm not the one in the critical care unit from a stab wound," he replied cooly. Momo sighed. He was right. She pushed herself up to a sitting position, ignoring the tiny shot of pain it gave her. Shiro's eyes flashed with a little bit of worry. Darn-she must have winced.

"Let me see it," he ordered.

"What?"

"Let me see your wound."

"Why?"

"Aren't Vice Captains supposed to listen to the Captains?" he pointed out.

"Don't pull rank on me, Shiro. It's not nice."

"I may have to. Now let me see your wound!"

"No! I would have to unbutton my shirt halfway for that!"

"Momo, we grew up together. There have been plenty of times when I've seen your stomach."

"So?"

Shiro growled in frustration. He _growled. _Before she had time to laugh at that, she was lying back down, and the bandages around her wound were exposed. She gave Shiro her best glare. But he wasn't paying attention. He gently pressed his hand down against the bandages, and suddenly a cooling sensation eased the throbbing. Momo let her head fall back, sighing in relief.

"See? That wasn't so bad. You didn't have to go and whine about it." Shiro chan said smugly. But Momo was already on her way to sleep.


	4. The Missing Trees

_"Tobiume? Where are you?" Momo called. This couldn't be the world inside her mind. It didn't look right. There were no trees. It was too open-there was only grass for miles. Where was the sun? There were clouds covering the sky-but she still couldn't feel the sun. It was cold. Very cold. Not Shiro-cold, but deathly cold. Even though the grass was green. Where was the tree in the middle of her world, where she felt Tobiume the strongest? Where was that huge plum tree? There was no answer to her thoughts. She began to panic. Momo hadn't been alone in her mind before. Always, even before she knew she had shinigami powers, there had been Tobiume's voice, to guide her. To comfort her when times got rough. To encourage her when she needed it. To understand her. To listen to her troubles. To snap her out of it when she was depressed. Where was Tobiume? Momo cupped her hands to her mouth and stood on her tiptoes._

_"TOBIUME!!!!!!!!!"_

_Yet, there was not an answer. _

Momo gasped as she woke up, finding herself in a sitting position, and in a cold sweat.

"Momo-what's wrong?"

She looked towards the sound of the voice, and registered white hair. She looked him in his deep, turquoise eyes and whispered desperately.

"She's gone."

THATS ALL FOR THIS CHAPPY. haha-yeah right. I wouldn't be so mean to you guys. End of author's note.

The words echoed throughout her mind with a finalty that snatched at her and tore her heart with a sinking sensation. He was listening now-he looked worried.

"Who's gone?"

"Tobiume. Shiro-chan, she's gone. She left." Momo replied broken-heartedly. His white eyebrows furrowed together.

"What? Don't be stupid, baka. A zanpakto can not leave its weilder. They are a part of the weilder's soul. If either were to leave the other, the soul would be ripped a part," he said a matter-of-factly. Before Momo could respond, the door to the infirmary opened. Captain Unohana surveyed the scene warily, and then handed over a sheet to Hitsugaya.

"Vice Captain Hinamori, you are released into the care of Captain Hitsugaya for the next week. However, it is imperitive that you rest the entire week before resuming your paperwork duties."

_What? _The question bounced around in her head as Shiro signed the paper and handed it back.

"Captain Unohana?"

The Captain looked over at her.

"Yes, Vice-Captain Hinamori?"

"Wasn't I supposed to be released to my quarters today?"

Captain Unohana hesitated, and Shiro watched her with the same look as Hinamori, only with a more demanding expression. Apparently he didn't know the reason for the situation either.

"Well, as you were resting these past few days, we took a few more tests to make sure you were alright. Before, we had believed your spiritual powers were completely intact, along with the rest of your soul. However, when we took those tests, we found that your spiritual powers had deteriorated. They are nearly none-existent now. This is puzzling, because, as you can see, your zanpakto still has its form, and your aura has not changed."

Momo felt her gut begin to plummet, while Shiro's frown seemed to get deeper and deeper. Captain Unohana paused, scanning both of them before going on, gentling her voice.

"It is very unlikely that your powers will return, Hinamori."

_What? _But Tobiume had said that she would return. No. This couldn't be happening. Momo suddenly felt like she had stepped off the edge of a cliff into oblivion. Everything she had ever worked for-all gone. The worst part-that one of her closest friends, her closest ally in battle, may not return. The reality was far too strong for her to grasp.

"In normal circumstances, you would have been sent back with your grandmother. However, as Aizen has targeted you, and seeing Captain Hitsugaya's reaction, we have decided that in order to keep Captain Hitsugaya in condition to fight, it would be best if you were put directly under his protection."

So that was it. In a few days she had gone from valuable fighting officer to a liability. Tears welled up in her eyes that she refused to let fall. She felt a warm hand on hers, and Shiro's aura wrapped around her, comforting her. Captain Unohana was wise enough to take her leave at this point. Momo could feel Shiro's eyes on her, but she refused to look up. He might see how conflicted she was.

"Let's go." He said, his rough voice gentle. Her hands balled into fists, and she pushed the tears back. She took a hold of her zanpakto and stood up.

"Yes, let's."

Her voice sounded strangled. Absolutely strangled.


	5. Becoming Closer

"What do you want to eat?" Hitsugaya asked. Momo looked up at him, loafing on his blue couch. In fact, everything in his quarters was deep blue. Well, there was some variation-the curtains were black, the bed was white, the kitchen was light blue, the tables were mahogany and the couches were a dark maroon that Momo found she rather liked. But, overall his quarters were dark blue. He even had two stories. What did he need all that space for? These days all he ever did was paperwork. With a groan, Momo got up and headed to his kitchen, which was a few feet away from the living room where she originally sat.

"I'll find something."

Toushiro's eyebrows raised, and he crossed his arms.

"I'm not sure I trust you around my kitchen, bed-wetter."

Momo glared at him.

"It was only once! I accidently burn down half of Obaa-san's kitchen when I was four, and you never leave me alone about it! And I don't wet the bed anymore, Shiro!" Momo complained, opening his refridgerator. Stocked to the brim with watermelon slices. Typical. Oh, except for one carton of eggs and a gallon of milk. What was he going to offer? 'would you like eggs with watermelon?'

"It's Hitsugaya-taicho! And I told you to stay out of the kitchen, like I am now!"

_May as well grab a watermelon. I don't like eggs anyway. _Momo thought, grabbing one. She turned to face Hitsugaya, only to find him inches away from her. Too close. FAR too close. She avoided his eyes-nowadays looking at them shut down her thoughts, and yelled in his face to hide her embarrassment and awareness of the situation.

"Don't pull rank on me, Shiro-Chan! And besides, how the heck would I be able to start a fire with a watermelon?"

She found herself staring at his chin instead of his eyes-he seemed to have gone through a growth spurt. He was now level with her.

"You'd find a way." Toushiro said simply. Momo huffed and stalked past him back to the couch next to Tobiume's blade. She tore into the watermelon slice with anger. A white plate was shoved under the watermelon.

"Geez, Momo. You're such a messy eater."

"It's your fault!" Momo snapped through a mouthful of seeds, raising her head to look at him. Big mistake. His eyes met hers. Instantly, all her anger dried up. Her mind went blank. His turquoise eyes were absolutely mesmerizing-when you looked at them up close, there were rings of green and blue. They grew lighter and lighter as the circles grew closer to his pupils. If one looked close enough, you could see a slim circle of white right around his puils. She felt a napkin wipe at her mouth, as his eyes darted around her face. Her cheeks heated up. Great. She was probably as red as a tomato right now. What was wrong with her? Her heart beat rapidly as she became intensely aware of him, and the close proximity. She squeaked and scooted away from him. Her mouth tingled where he had wiped away the extra melon juice. Suddenly she felt embarrassed at her sloppiness.

"What's wrong with you, bed-wetter?" Toushiro was staring at her, perplexed. His tone was demanding, as always.

"I-I don't know." Momo stuttered, trying to get her heart rate calm. Why hadn't she noticed before? When had he changed? Instead of the bratty child she had grown up with, who had pulled her hair to get attention, with the scrawny arms but a big riatsu, there stood a handsome teenage boy who was a couple inches taller than her, who looked and who she knew was strong enough to take on any challenge? When had she turned from the protector to the one being protected? Had she grown that weak? Why was her heart beating so fast as she looked at him, and why did her stomach feel like butterflies were fluttering around everywhere?

He sat down beside her, making the couch give in to his weight. When had the lightweight boy gained muscle? Momo drew her legs up and wrapped her arms around them as her mind flickered randomly to Tobiume.

"Alright. I'm listening, so you may as well chatter your head off."

But she couldn't talk. She didn't know what to say. And Tobiume wasn't there to help her out. Tobiume....would she ever come back? A strong arm wrapped around her shoulders and pulled her close.

"Would you talk already? You usually never shut up, and NOW you're being quiet?" he sounded exasperated. But he was holding her. It made her feel complete. But, she wanted to be closer. His riatsu settled around her, and his scent was calming. Instead of talking, she let go of her legs and leaned against him, turning her head so her cheek rested against his chest and she wrapped her arms around him. Shiro was still here. Even though everything was changing, he was still here. He had stopped talking.

"I just.....don't feel well. Confused."

He took a large breath, and brought his other arm under her legs, shifting her into his lap so it was easier for her to hug him.

"Sheesh. I've been confused for a while, Momo. A lot has happened." his voice was softer. Gentler than she was used to. She felt a tugging, and her hair came loose from its bun. He rested his head on top of hers.

"Do me a favor, would you? Get rid of the damn bun. I'm sick of it."

A knock at the door interrupted them.

"Taicho? Unlock the door! I want to see Momo!" Rangiku's voice rudely intruded. Momo eyed the door, and watched it slowly freeze over. Apparently Shiro appreciated the interruption about as much as she did.

"Ouch! Taicho! That was unneccessary! Now my hand is frostbitten!"

"Get the hell away, Matsumoto!" Shiro growled.

"Aww! Are you and Momo having a moment? You only get that protective around her! Now you HAVE to let me in!"

Momo sighed, resigned. She started to get up, but was pulled back down.

"Stay where you are," Shiro said irritably, but soft enough so Rangiku wouldn't hear. The door opened a crack.

"Matsumoto-LEAVE!" Toushiro roared. A small ice dragon shot out of his zanpakto towards the door.

"Oh shit!" another voice that sounded like Renji's cursed, and the door was shut verrryyy quickly.

"Fine, we'll leave, but I'm squeezing the details out of Momo later!"

"Whatever." Hitsugaya snapped. Momo drew back again. They both knew the moment had been ruined.

"Thanks, Shiro-Chan. I feel better now." Momo said, cracking a smile. Her heart felt much lighter than it was before. Actually, she felt absolutely blissful. She reached up and ruffled his hair.

"Yeah, that's good, I guess." He replied, his anger depleted. They sat awkwardly for a moment. Momo got off of Toushiro's lap and stretched.

"So....you said you were going to train me?"

It only took a split second for him to realize what she was asking him. Smart Shiro.

"You want to learn hand-to-hand combat?"

AN: So...what did you guys think? Were the characters in..well, character? Let me know! The more reviews I get, the longer the chapter-how's this....for every review, 1000 words. :)


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